Rejecting or tripping Verkhniy Lars?

2010-02-10 22:08

According to the Georgian opposition, Georgia keeps losing its territories. The country is concerned about the building of a road eastward of Tskhinval, which will result in the country's loss of control over the part of Kazbegskiy region. This road has already been claimed by the president of South Ossetia. It also borders with the Verkhniy Lars check-point, which is to be opened in March at the Russian-Georgian border.

Pancake Week is coming with pancakes, while the Georgian opposition is marking the coming spring with new ultimatums. Why?

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Several days ago, the Georgian Laborites demanded the resignation of the president in order to avoid the loss of the territories. As was stated by leader of the party Shalva Natelashvili, the border guards have already yielded several kilometers at Mamisonskiy mountain pass; now they want to give Russia the land to the east of South Ossetia along the northern border of Georgia, and the only reason is the weak government that is hostile to Moscow.

Natelashvili made another attempt to expostulate Mikhail Saakaashvili for not leaving his post in August 2008, for at that moment Georgia could have avoided the loss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

It is difficult to say what "could have happened if", considering that the entire history of the development of relationship between the Georgians and the two nations that have gained independence led Sukhum and Tskhinval to independence.

The Abkhaz and the Ossetians fought and rose in rebellion to free from the forced submission to Tbilisi in the times when the Soviet power was established. It was the firm hand of the communists that buried these people's dreams of liberty in oblivion and passed Abkhazia and South Ossetia under the supervision of the Georgian SSR.

So long as the socialism-building state was then headed not by a neutral person but by a Georgian native, he took care to make the Georgians feel most comfortable in Sukhum and Tskhinval. They could easily get leading positions; the Georgian language started to prevail both in records management and education. Things went as far as the closing of the Abkhaz schools. As soon as Iosif Stalin - Dzhugashvili died, the reverse process of the "de-Georgianization" of the regions started slowly.

However, in the times of the USSR collapse, the nationalistic attitude started to prevail in Georgia again; on one hand, it led to numerous violations of the national minorities' rights, while on the other hand, it did not allow liberating Abkhzia and South Ossetia, who, in the context of the autonomies' rights, wanted to withdraw from the Georgian SSR and become a separate unit of the Union.

Meanwhile, Georgia was facing hard times. Eduard Shevardnadze's team overthrew the first President of the independent Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia who was noted for his slogan "Georgia for the Georgians". During the ruling of the "sly fox", Tbilisi completely lost the Abkhaz' and the Ossetians' trust trying to settle the problem of separatism by military way. Neither did Mikhail Saakashvili who replaced Shevardnadze succeed in the negotiating area; having lost patience, he made up his mind to cut the Gordian knot by attacking Tskhinval.

Naturally, Russia played a serious role in liberating the Abkhaz and the Ossetians; Russia did not see any grounds for supporting Saakashvili's hostile government and, being a peacemaker, provided safety on the borders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In the context of the Georgian government's repentance, the change of the militaristic and anti-Russian line could really change the situation.